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A review by bee_thebibliophile
The Long Game by Rachel Reid
5.0
Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov. One of my favorite book couples finally got their sequel and their HEA and I couldn’t love it more!
Eleven years after their rookie seasons in the NHL, Shane and Ilya are still finding time to secretly meet up, to be together, to love each other, but things are getting harder and harder as the years go by. They made me laugh hysterically, cry frequently and smile more often than not when I read them together. But my heart hurt for them as they struggled with the distance (both physical and emotional) between them and the always present fear that their secret would be blown.
There were so many intimate moments between Shane and Ilya that made my heart happy and all of the inside jokes and references to Heated Rivalry were perfect. I loved seeing them interact as a couple and as individuals with other Game Changers characters. We finally get to see glimpses of Shane and Ilya as an established couple, going through the ups and downs of life and figuring out a way to be there for each other even when they aren’t physically there. I can’t really put into words how much I love the two of them together - they shouldn’t work and have had to overcome so much to be together but they don’t let it stop them, even when things blow up in their faces.
I loved that the timeline lined up with Role Model and that we got to see all of those events from Ilya’s perspective, especially how much Troy and Harris’s happiness affected him and made him want more with Shane. This was most definitely a love letter to the Ilya fans out there and I was SO here for it - his sense of humor and his gruff exterior but sweet, squishy interior was perfect and made me love him even more. I really enjoyed the candid look we got into his mental health and how that played into all the parts of his life, even his interactions with his teammates.
There were a few things I didn’t love about this sequel, but all of the great parts vastly outweigh each of these. Shane felt like a totally different character at times in this book - he was selfish, insecure and a lot more immature than he was in Heated Rivalry and I didn’t love that change. Once he finally acknowledged that Ilya chose him and started to get more introspective, I felt like we were back to the old Shane - the one I loved so much before. I also felt like there were a lot of inner workings of the NHL and the organization’s power at play here more than any other story in this series and it kind of threw me off since it didn’t actually end up adding much to this story. Maybe setting things up for future Game Changers to make some moves?
Even though this wasn’t the super splashy, over the top HEA I pictured for Shane and Ilya, it was perfect. This book was all-consuming, wonderful, emotional and so satisfying for Shane and Ilya fans like myself. I already can’t wait for more Game Changers books where we’ll see the ripple effects of their relationship playing out. Maybe with that sweetheart rookie Luca Haas?!
Eleven years after their rookie seasons in the NHL, Shane and Ilya are still finding time to secretly meet up, to be together, to love each other, but things are getting harder and harder as the years go by. They made me laugh hysterically, cry frequently and smile more often than not when I read them together. But my heart hurt for them as they struggled with the distance (both physical and emotional) between them and the always present fear that their secret would be blown.
There were so many intimate moments between Shane and Ilya that made my heart happy and all of the inside jokes and references to Heated Rivalry were perfect. I loved seeing them interact as a couple and as individuals with other Game Changers characters. We finally get to see glimpses of Shane and Ilya as an established couple, going through the ups and downs of life and figuring out a way to be there for each other even when they aren’t physically there. I can’t really put into words how much I love the two of them together - they shouldn’t work and have had to overcome so much to be together but they don’t let it stop them, even when things blow up in their faces.
I loved that the timeline lined up with Role Model and that we got to see all of those events from Ilya’s perspective, especially how much Troy and Harris’s happiness affected him and made him want more with Shane. This was most definitely a love letter to the Ilya fans out there and I was SO here for it - his sense of humor and his gruff exterior but sweet, squishy interior was perfect and made me love him even more. I really enjoyed the candid look we got into his mental health and how that played into all the parts of his life, even his interactions with his teammates.
There were a few things I didn’t love about this sequel, but all of the great parts vastly outweigh each of these. Shane felt like a totally different character at times in this book - he was selfish, insecure and a lot more immature than he was in Heated Rivalry and I didn’t love that change. Once he finally acknowledged that Ilya chose him and started to get more introspective, I felt like we were back to the old Shane - the one I loved so much before. I also felt like there were a lot of inner workings of the NHL and the organization’s power at play here more than any other story in this series and it kind of threw me off since it didn’t actually end up adding much to this story. Maybe setting things up for future Game Changers to make some moves?
Even though this wasn’t the super splashy, over the top HEA I pictured for Shane and Ilya, it was perfect. This book was all-consuming, wonderful, emotional and so satisfying for Shane and Ilya fans like myself. I already can’t wait for more Game Changers books where we’ll see the ripple effects of their relationship playing out. Maybe with that sweetheart rookie Luca Haas?!